Personal reflections on supporting multilingual and inclusive early literacy

¶ … families who speak languages other than English in the home. My own family is bilingual, and I am from a multicultural city in which people from many different backgrounds live in the same neighborhood. Therefore, I have had positive experiences with teachers being used to multicultural and multilingual students.

My view is that multilingualism is a core strength that should be nurtured, and it breaks my heart when parents do not use their mother tongue at home out of fear that their child will not grow up with strong English language skills. I have tried to tell parents that research shows that bilingual students learn faster, particularly regarding verbal skills, and also develop the social skills that will help them later in life (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2015).

Although I have not worked professionally with students who have special needs, on an informal level I have worked closely with children who have physical and developmental disabilities. Several of my cousins have disabled children, and we have always made accommodations when necessary and I am well prepared to make similar accommodations in my classroom because I believe wholeheartedly in the principle of inclusiveness.

Unit 2 Journal

There are many different approaches to literacy development in ELLs, as the stories of Tiffany and Alicia show. Obviously, native English speakers sometimes have an advantage when encountering the challenges of literacy development. I believe that ELLs have advantages in the long run. As an early childhood professional, I intend to support multilingual literacy in ELLs by offering the opportunity for the students to improve in their native tongue(s) as well as English. Research continually shows that "children can learn two native languages as easily as they can learn one," ("Bilingual children have a two-tracked mind," 2013).

Unit 4 Journal

As I mentioned in an early journal, I have become adept at adapting an area to create an inclusive and supportive environment. In addition to physical or structural changes, I believe that the social changes to the atmosphere will help create a supportive environment. As Robertson (n.d.) points out, ELLs benefit from "language rich environments" that has multiple types of material available from digital media to poster boards. Likewise, children with special needs will enjoy interacting with a diversity of materials. No two children are alike, so what works for one will not necessarily work for another. Diversity in the classroom is a key to inclusivity. When a large number of students speak the same first language, such as Spanish, then it can be fun for the students to use some Spanish in the classroom to create a bilingual education experience. Without "dumbing it down" for all students, simplifying language to encourage maximum comprehension is a key (Robertson, n.d.). Finally, it may be helpful to occasionally arrange the classroom differently so that students interact with different classmates from different backgrounds. This will prevent students from similar backgrounds from cutting themselves off from others because they feel comfortable; it would be better for all students to interact with all of their peers.